653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
1-415-586-3733
[email protected]
Open to walk-in trade and browsing
Tuesday to Sunday
noon to six
Live Streams every weekend!
Refresh your browser to catch a show in progress!
Visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel!
But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!
Ben Stolorow, piano. Peter Barshay, bass. Vince Lateano, drums. with guest Erik Jekabson, trumpet $20 suggested donation, or what you can afford. byob. Come for a tune, or come for two sets… whatever fits your life, you don’t want to miss out on one of the great pleasures of San Francisco life and San Francisco jazz. Vince has been a mainstay in this town since he rousted out of the Army and stayed put here in the mid-1960s. He took what he’d learned in his Sacramento youth and became the go-to drummer in North Beach and all around town, especially after Johnny Markham subbed out to him when JM hit the circuit. Vince toured with Cal Tjader, Vince Guaraldi, Woody Herman and Stan Getz, was the house drummer in Jazz at Pearl’s Columbus Avenue heyday, led memorable sessions in Dogpatch, over at Pier 23 down at the 7 Mile House…
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Marina Crouse, vocals. Danny Caron, guitar. Ruth Davies, bass. Mark Lee, drums. $20 cover charge; byob. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. With two albums to her credit, Marina Crouse is an astonishingly talented singer in Spanish and English both, whether it’s a jazz classic, a scorching blues number, a soulful Mexican ballad or an irresistible and clever original. Blessed with a deeply expressive voice early in life, her early classical training underlies her powerful vocal delivery. She traverses a wide range of material, delivering an emotional authenticity that consistently cuts deep. “When I sing,” she says, “I feel like I break myself open and let a little piece of myself come out. I’m reaching out to people with hopes to connect on a personal level. And when we do, that to me is better than anything else.” Plus, she’s a lot of fun to hear, especially with…
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Pat Wilder, guitar and vocals Ryan Pesce, guitar Kirk Bowman, bass Thatcher Nine, drums $20 cover; byob. Blues guitarist and singer Pat Wilder brings it all back home with love for you on Valentine’s Day! Sultry blues like you love it from the likes of Etta James & Barbara Lynne. Pat Wilder was born into a family of artists. San Francisco in the sixties was the backdrop of her childhood. As a hub for the Civil Rights Movement and the home to Haight-Ashbury hippies, SF’s rich culture laid fertile ground for becoming an artist herself. “Music was in my blood,” she recalls. She danced between the piano, the congas, and the plastic guitar her mother bought her from Woolworth’s, jamming with her harpsichord-strumming, harmonica-humming grandmother. The bluesman Taj Mahal, a family friend, bequeathed Pat her first electric guitar, and taught her his “Ain’t Gwine Whistle Dixie (Anymo’).” The rest is…
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It’s the second Friday of the month, and lucky for you, you’re about to get lucky on Valentine’s Day! Charm your crush with an easy-going evening of jazz standards and chestnuts played with a Latin flare. Pianist Eric Shifrin and percussionist Raul Ramirez are here to entertain you with a couple of sets of lovely tunes. You’re always in with the in crowd when you’re at Bird & Beckett for a second Friday with Eric & the In Crowd. BYOB and a twenty for the musicians. No reservation necessary, but feel free to call for one anyway – 415-586-3733.
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Jim Campilongo, guitar. Andrew Higgins, bass. David Rokeach, drums. $20 cover charge; byob. For reservations, call 415-586-3733. Billboard Magazine calls Jim Campilongo “an American treasure,” an accolade which this guitarist’s artistry and influential career has richly earned him. Time Out NYC describes Campilongo perfectly: “New York has no shortage of guitar heroes but few cover as many bases as Jim Campilongo. Campilongo reveals a range that extends from seductive country-swing to atmospheric jazz and well beyond.” New Yorker magazine says, “There it was again: the stinging treble, the spooky overtones, the strings snapping and booming under his hands, the sound of a Tele being played as skillfully and exuberantly as it can be played. It sounded like nothing and nobody else sounded like Jim Campilongo.” With fifteen albums of original material and guest appearances on dozens of recordings–from his significant contribution on Cake’s million-selling “Prolonging the Magic” to (most recently)…
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Doors open at 6:30pm to socialize with Charlie Haas prior to his reading at 7pm. Novelist, essayist and screenwriter Charlie Haas presents his new book, The Current Fantasy (Beck & Branch, 2024), his second novel. Charlie’s debut novel The Enthusiast (HarperPerennial) was published in 2009. Highly regarded as a screenwriter, Charlie’s credits include Over the Edge, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His writing has appeared in Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, among many other journals. He lives in Oakland with his wife, the writer and editor B. K. Moran. The Current Fantasy begins with the Lanz family in Berlin in 1914, stressed and alarmed as the city’s populace is stirred by an ugly nationalist fervor. Seeking a brief respite from the growing madness they sense around them, they’re drawn to a community a train ride away in the nearby woods — a countercultural…
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Maurice Tani, guitar and vocals. Henry Salvia, piano. Greg Kehret, bass. $20 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call the shop at 415-586-3733. This week we’ll be celebrating the 1529th running of the Valentines since Pope Gelasius I ordered Cupid to fire his starting bow in the streets of Rome in 496 AD. Times have changed… or have they? Join singer-songslinger Maurice Tani, pianist Henry Salvia and bassist Greg Kehret as they explore the darker corners of timeless romance in the modern world. Oh, what is beauty? Deception or truth? What is love crushed? Destroyer of youth. You had to flirt with disaster until It finally fell for you. Please note that, yes, we realize this is also a religious holiday for certain sports fans, though our local team will not be playing. Ask your clergy or sacred text if this concert is right for you.
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James Yeary makes poems, art objects, performances, readings, books and the like. For the last couple years he has worked in a surgery-adjacent laboratory turning human tissue into colorful pictograms, very occult and ethically suspicious but presumably for a good cause. He will eventually do something else but presumably still will make poems. Chris Ashby is a poet, writer, and musician living in Portland, OR by way of Oklahoma, Texas, and Idaho. They are the editor and publisher of Couch Press, and a co-organizer of the Spare Room Reading Series since 2014. They’ve worked with artist Nate Orton on his multi-decade MY DAY project situated in the Pacific Northwest, and on several collaborations with James Yeary. Their most recent chapbook is From Tiered Walls with art by Joe Galván (Vesta/Couch Press). They work in public service. Julien Poirier teaches poetry in the San Francisco public schools and at San…
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Sukhawat Ali Khan – Vocal and Harmonium Swapan Gandhi – Bansuri Flute Ferhan Qureshi – Tabla $20 cover charge; byob. For reservations, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Sukhawat Ali Khan is the son and disciple of the legendary vocalist Ustad Salamat Ali Khan of the Shaam Chaurasi Gharana. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Sukhawat is a versatile singer based out of the San Francisco Bay Area and has performed internationally in a career spanning nearly 50 years. In addition to presenting North Indian and Pakistani traditional music, he has recorded and performed extensively with several world fusion music ensembles. This concert will feature presentations of classical and light classical forms including khayal, thumri, ghazal and sufiana kalam. Sukhawat’s ensemble for this evening’s performance will include Swapan Gandhi on bansuri and Ferhan Qureshi on tabla. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyvx4iXUwm0
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Francis Wong, saxophone. Karl Evangelista, guitar. Chris Trinidad, bass. Jimmy Biala, drums. $20 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Modern jazz with a Filipino folk inflection. Top players all, collectively engaged in the music at this juncture in our urgent historical moment.
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Doug Goodkin – piano. Marty Wehner – trombone. Sam Heminger – bass. $20 suggested donation per adult; byob. Teens and students – $10 suggested. Kids, free. Celebrating Doug’s new book Jazz, Joy and Justice. Doug Goodkin, as well as being a wonderful musician himself, is a celebrated educator, loved for his work by generations of young San Franciscans and students of all ages, far and wide. His Orff-oriented work that taps children intuitively into the roots of music within them has always revolved around the joy it evokes and the innate talent and understanding of the world that it reveals. He wonders, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all American school children learned something about our great American art form of jazz? If they not only listened to and played their music, but also learned the stories of our American jazz geniuses? If by hearing these stories, they also came to…
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In Spoken Duets, Chris Kammler and Susan Dambroff collage words into a riff, a rumble, and a rant, and speak them in syncopated and unsyncopated time. They surf through the day-to-day of these tsunami times with poetic and improvisational collaborations. They attempt to untwist and untangle language weaving in and out of the personal and the political, engaging the audience with their fierce honesty and delightful artistry. They offer prayers, love, and humor, as they nurture our collective resilience to garner our humanity back. CKammler is a writer, director, performer, and drama therapist working in a psychiatric hospital. She and Susan Dambroff have spun words together since the 90s. Her written work has been performed in Europe and SF. She practices Qigong and energy arts to anchor the light in these turbulent times. Dambroff is a poet, performer, teacher, and mother. She is drawn to the detailed placement of words,…
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Come out and join the friends and neighbors of Glen Park’s own Michelle Matz, to hear her read & celebrate her new poetry collection, Acoustic Shadow. A fine Wednesday evening in Glen Park at its own little bookshop is guaranteed. “Michelle Matz’s Acoustic Shadow treads the solitary space between love and grief with remarkable presence. A narrative poet who has mastered the art of restraint, Matz knows how to leap and turn so that clear threads of story become nearly lyrical. Abiding in multiple griefs and much humanity, these poems hold and witness and never look away. Understated, tender, deeply authentic, Acoustic Shadow walks straight through loss and finds its way back home again and again.” –Amanda Moore
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$25 cover charge; byob. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. https://www.facebook.com/bird.and.beckett/videos/563350992916034 sound starts at the 1:42 mark… fabulous to the end! The towering master of tenor saxophone (and many another instrument), Noel Jewkes brings his fine quartet featuring vocalist Kay Kostopoulos, with Grant Levin on piano, Chris Amberger on bass and Al Marshall on drums. Exceptional jazz beautifully played and sung with sultry passion. We’re always grateful when any of these fine musicians crosses the Bird & Beckett stage and most especially when Noel Jewkes, aka Dr. Legato, is leading the charge. Kay and Noel have a new single coming out of “All or Nothing at All,” the jazz chestnut that was a big hit for Frank Sinatra in 1943. Noel did the arrangement and plays all the horn parts, of which there are many. You’ll hear it live during tonight’s show, though Noel will only be able…
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The first Sunday of each month, with some pauses during school breaks, we present a jazz ensemble from a local school and follow it with a jam session specially tuned to emerging young talent from the region’s many wonderful jazz education programs. This time out, San Francisco’s Urban School once again sends its Bebop Combo, which will play a set then host a jam session for all young players game to rise to the challenge! Check out this combo set and the session that follows, from spring 2022 date: https://www.facebook.com/bird.and.beckett/videos/1761571470848795
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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!
Your donation to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project helps us pay for a multitude of operating expenses necessary to present, promote and preserve local music, poetry, and more.
Help us keep the arts alive and thriving!
The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project was created in 2007 "to present, document and archive the creative work of significant living writers and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, for a neighborhood audience and future generations," continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.
We continue to present a full slate of programming of live music and poetry readings, and produce a literary journal and poetry chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support by way of donations.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, make a check out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” and drop it off or mail it to:
Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131
Call us at (415) 586-3733 to find out how else you might lend your support.
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We're immensely appreciative of Jazz in the Neighborhood for having stepped in as our temporary fiscal sponsor for a few months, while we straightened out some paperwork to get nonprofit status restored to the BBCLP. We're happy to say that's been done, and all past, present, and future donations made directly to the BBCLP are fully tax-deductible!
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The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
Our events are put on under the umbrella of the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (the "BBCLP"). That's how we fund our ambitious schedule of 300 or so concerts and literary events every year.
The BBCLP is a [Read More ]
The Independent Musicians Alliance
Gigging musicians! You have nothing to lose but your lack of a collective voice to achieve fair wages for your work!
The IMA can be a conduit for you, if you join in to make it work.
https://www.independentmusiciansalliance.org/
Read more here - Andy Gilbert's Feb 25 article about the IMA from KQED's site
